The Top 100 Project

For the Next 193 Project, we’ve got a smart satire about dumb people. The whole cast is awfully good (okay, Bev takes issue with one person’s performance), but this was Nicole Kidman’s breakout after playing second fiddle for most of the first decade of her illustrious career. The deliciously diabolical dummy she plays here is one of the most unsung performances of the ’90s. We hashed out how Gus Van Sant’s flick addresses celebrity worship, tabloid news and television production. We even spent a bunch of time talking about real-life TV journalists who might not be as smart as you think they are and how they get too much credit (and also blame) for the news they present. So avoid all the nonstop COVID talk by spending a little over 40 minutes with us jawing about one of Nicole Kidman’s best works. If you don’t choose to do that, careful because she may have you killed by a couple of impressionable lunkheads. Well, Actually: The Joaquin Phoenix / Casey Affleck joint we sloughed off is called I’m Still Here. Yo